


Not that Kind of Grinding

by Lycoria



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Camboy Shiro, Fluff, Gaming, M/M, Office AU, Shiro suffering, Shiro/Kuro duality, Smut, This started out as a little drabble, Too much fluff, What am I doing, camboy, camboy au, more of the grinding everyone hates, oblivious keith, office worker keith, office worker shiro, pining shiro, too little of the grinding people want
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2018-11-08 09:25:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11078730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lycoria/pseuds/Lycoria
Summary: In which camboy!Shiro discovers that his co-worker, Keith watches his videos.Now they're raid partners on the MMORPG Legendary Defender.Wait. What?Office worker AU, Camboy Shiro AU, Keith is Oblivious and Shiro is Pining and Grinding





	1. Level 1

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to Synnesai on Twitter for helping me give birth to this monster. 
> 
> I decided to start writing this as a drabble as an exercise this morning, but like everything in my life, it gained a will of its own and spiraled out of control.
> 
> It's been awhile since I've written so I'm a bit rusty! But thank you so much for all the love and support everyone's shown me since my hiatus. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

_“Good morning everyone! Reminder that I’ll be online tonight at 10pm EST! See you all there”_  
  
As innocuous as the tweet read, the words were followed with an incredible body shot, hand hitching up the grey t-shirt to reveal perfect abs and waistline that anyone would drool over. The poster’s sweatpants hung dangerously low on his hips, leaving the faintest impression of trimmed hair between his defined Apollo’s belt.  
  
Keith tapped on the photo and zoomed in, peering at the faintest lines of veins along the forearm and hands. He licked his lips, his throat suddenly feeling dry.  
  
He tore his gaze away from his smartphone for just a second and slumped the wall of the bathroom stall, florescent lights humming above him. It really wasn’t like Keith to hide in a bathroom and look at pictures of shirtless guys, contrary to what had been his routine for the past few weeks. Really. It wasn’t.  
  
But he dreaded leaving the comfort of the stark white men’s bathroom and going back to his desk in the accounting department. He dreaded Larry, who was bound to saunter over in another guise of mentorship while nit-picking at his spreadsheets. For now, maybe he could just take another peek.  
  
The man in the image with a body sculpted by the gods above went by the name “Kuro,” an internet performer of sorts, some would say. _More like Camboy_ , Keith said to himself, much more honestly.  
  
He had found out about Kuro through his twitter, strangely enough. The account had remained largely inactive for most of his college years, created in high school only as part of an ill-planned segment of class on technology. Since starting his job here at Garrison Tech though, he had taken to scrolling endlessly through his feed, watching his high school classmates have babies or backpack through Europe in an attempt to find themselves.  
  
Still, over time he had utilized the format to follow some of his closer friends on the online games he played. Those accounts were much less inhibited by the fear of people who knew them in person, and so his feed filled up with fanart and porn in equal measures.  
  
It happened one night when Keith lay in bed, bored and exhausted in a way that sank through his bones and refused to let him drift into the temporary peace of sleep. Someone had retweeted a compilation of shirtless photos bordering on completely nude. He would have scrolled past after brief ogling, but Keith was weak okay? He was only human and so, _so_ weak to that impossible shoulder to waist ratio.  
  
One thing led to another, and Keith found himself thrusting into the tight fist of his own hand, gasping as he watched Kuro do the same thing, groaning on camera as he encouraged his viewers with the filthiest praise he’d ever heard.  
  
It didn’t matter that Kuro’s face remained a mystery, the voice Keith heard was low and horribly inviting, dragging him in through his earbuds and sending shivers down his spine. Kuro’s physique that seemed to imply an impressiveness in size in, well, all aspects of him didn’t betray Keith. He nearly drooled at the thought of taking the camboy’s cock in his mouth, thick and just curving slightly to the left.  
  
When Kuro came, jerking erratically off his seat as he painted his own toned stomach, Keith cummed so hard he saw stars. He knew then that he was hooked.  
  
Just the thought of watching Kuro again made Keith bite his lip, feeling himself harden in his pants. He wasn’t about to jerk off in the men’s bathroom though. He still had some sense of dignity, no matter how dangerously thin it was. With a sigh, he willed himself to unlatch the stall door and stepped out of the bathroom.  
  
Keith was met with the bright afternoon glow through the office’s massive glass windows, a display of the company’s wealth in being able to rent space downtown at the hub of a sprawling metropolis. Blearily he glanced one last time at his phone, hoping one last time that Kuro would update with another photo before he got back to his desk.  
  
Kuro never posted during work hours. That and the fact that not even his most diehard fans knew his face implied that even the massively popular camboy had a day job of some sort. For the most part, the community around him seemed to respect that, and they quietly accepted his anonymity.  
  
Keith frowned impatiently at his phone, the awful office-wide wi-fi acting up again as he saw at the top of Kuro’s feed an endlessly spiraling circle. Slowly he trudged towards his desk, and out of the corner of his eye there was Larry, hovering over his empty seat.  
  
Head down and staring at his phone, he struck another body with such force he couldn’t even understand what had happened for a moment. It was like stepping right into a brick wall, and his phone fell out of his hand and clattered to the ground.  
  
“Sorry, I didn’t even see you there.” Keith heard the low rumble of apology in the man’s voice. For a split second, the voice sounded distantly familiar, and Keith’s eyes snapped towards him.  
  
The man was incredibly tall and dressed in a grey button up, leaning over to pick up Keith’s mobile from the floor when he froze, seeing the image of Kuro still clearly at the top of his feed.  
  
“Damn, so he really hasn’t updated” Keith thought to himself before being engulfed in the flames of his mortification.  
  
He had been caught by a random guy. Obviously looking at shirtless photos of guys at work. Standing right outside of the bathroom.  
  
Fuck.  
  
With more speed and precision than Keith realized he had in him, he swiftly bent over and snatched his phone up, mumbling a quick “Sorry” in some desperate semblance of remaining civil as he bolted towards his desk, cheeks burning.  
  
He never did catch what the guy looked like, and he most importantly hoped that the other guy didn’t get a good look at his face either.  
  
The other man in question remained standing outside of the bathroom, his own ears growing red as he rubbed a hand down his face in disbelief.  
  
“Was he… looking at _my_ twitter account?” 

 

* * *

 

  
  
Dark purple eyes, soft black hair that he knew he could probably reach around and pull at, force the man before him to bare the long column of his neck. Would he submit, keening before him? Or would he fight back?  
  
The unknown was tantalizing, and Shiro moaned as his hand ran up the length of his well-lubed shaft, thumb dipping momentarily into the slit in a way that made his hips buck. His eyes, closed tight and imagining, were now gazing down at the comments as they flew across his screen.  
  
_Whoever that guy was,_ Shiro thought to himself as he languidly stroked himself, _he was absolutely gorgeous. I can’t believe I’d never seen him before._  
  
Another image formed in his mind, this time the man had his lips wrapped around his member, swollen and red from use. Tears had formed in his violet eyes as he tried to take the whole length into his mouth, desperate to please as his tongue laved at the base. “Fuck... “ Shiro could hear himself say. “I can feel you taking me to the back of your throat, and it’s still not enough to get it all in.”  
  
Shiro had been going at this longer than usual, putting on a stellar show no doubt. His cock was straining, twitching under the slick feel of his own hand from the prolonged teasing. He didn’t mean for it to be this way, but the more he thought about the mysterious man with the pouty frown and dark hair, the stronger his desire became and the less satisfying his own hand was.  
  
And so Shiro imagined the other man bent over his desk, pants and belt pulled down in their hurry and pooled around his ankles. “Spread yourself out for me, baby.” He panted, “Let me see how much you want it.”  
  
In his mind, he happily obliged, fingers digging into his firm asscheeks as he presented himself. Shiro could feel his arm move faster, the promise of release just out of reach.  
  
“I’m gonna fuck you so hard, you won’t walk straight for days” he groaned, “Can you see me? Can you see how much I want to fuck you senseless?”  
  
Something dawned in him, a realization that he had actually crossed the line. Shiro knew what he saw, he knew that mystery guy followed him on twitter, and in all likelihood, he was right here in the room, touching himself to the words Shiro was professing to him.  
  
A jolt of pleasure shot straight through him at the thought, feeling himself lose control. “Fuck, yes…” He sighed, “If you were here I’d cum all over you, smear it into your skin. Make you know that you did this to me, only you.”  
  
The slap of his hand along his length was ringing loud in his ears as he pictured the man before him, sitting across from him, frantically fisting his own member to the exact same pace. Would he moan? Would he bite his lip, fighting the urge to cry out? Or would he call out his name?  
  
“I’m gonna find you babe, I’m gonna make you mine.”  
  
The orgasm ripped through him so suddenly and relentlessly, Shiro was caught in surprise, seed shooting as high as up his chest. He grunted as he rocked slowly into his hand with every aftershock, spurts of cum coating his fingers. He sat in the afterglow, legs splayed and relaxed as he read the various comments and reactions of his viewers.  
  
“Thanks for joining me again tonight.” He managed to croak out, giving them a faint wave. “This was Kuro, I’ll see you all next time.”  
  
He reached to shut the webcam off before grabbing a towel and wiping himself off, hissing as he touched his oversensitive body.  
  
Now that he had a level enough head to actually analyze what he had been thinking, the bright blush of his own disbelief came over him. What the fuck was he thinking? He didn’t even know the guy, and worse off, he was pretty sure he worked at Garrison Tech too.  
  
What first started off as worry during his after work commute, wondering if the man had recognized him, gave away to simple curiosity as Shiro replayed the their run-in, the afternoon sunlight hitting his high cheekbones and long lashes. He was attractive, and he was obviously a fan.  
  
Becoming “Kuro” was a strange process for Shiro. It began as posting images of his progress as his gym, eventually spiralling into what became his second job. There was a certain high he got from knowing how much people enjoyed hearing him talk dirty and get off.  
  
Takashi Shirogane was a straightlaced, charming golden boy who never managed to successfully maintain a relationship. Whenever he was attracted to anyone, he’d clam up like a nervous middle schooler. Sex was even worse, because even if he so badly wanted to take control he could never, fearing he could and would go overboard with his actions.  
  
Kuro, on the other hand, was free to do what he wanted in front of as many people as he wanted. He could hide his face and masturbate to a camera, fantasize and talk about doing the filthiest things imaginable.  
  
This mysterious man was the bizarre and terrifying bridge between his two lives, throwing him off balance. Shiro was simultaneous aroused and afraid of the idea that he could have realized who Shiro was. He had to determine if the man knew, he decided. As Shiro laid down, the buzz of sleep falling over him, he made plans to stop by the finance floor to seek him out. 

 

* * *

 

  
  
To say Keith was wound up this morning was a huge understatement. As he typed with one hand and took a swig of lukewarm coffee, his eyes darted around the office, scrutinizing the body shapes of everyone he knew.  
  
No one had the physique of the guy he had bumped into, he knew for sure. From what he recalled, he was easily over six feet and built like a brick house. None of the people in finance even came close. Especially not Larry.  
  
Maybe that meant he wasn’t from this floor, Keith dared to hope, and that would mean he would never come back. I mean, what could the guy do except mock him for a couple minutes? It was nothing in way of blackmail and honestly of little consequence, he reminded himself.  
  
Keith allowed himself to relax, sinking back into his chair as he watched a folder copy over from an email attachment. He checked his phone for the time, mentally going through the catalogue of places he could go to for lunch.  
  
“Um... excuse me…” He heard a voice say quietly, trying not to disturb him. With one eye he looked up from his desk to see a bespectacled man standing before him, an old scar running over his nose and hair cropped close to his head, a white forelock hanging between his eyes.  
  
_Who even does that with their hair?_  
  
_He’s also probably six feet and he looks fucking ripped._  
  
_Oh fuck._  
  
“What?” Keith snapped at him, sitting up in his chair. Carefully he placed his phone into his pocket, every cell in his body singing to fight. This was likely the man he ran into, and now he’s found him. “What do you want? You’re not from this floor.”  
“I’m not but…” He hesitated under Keith’s withering gaze. “I just, wanted to introduce myself? My name’s Shiro and I’m from the floor above, marketing.”  
  
Shiro thrust his hand forward, an invitation to shake it as he tried to remain calm.  
  
_What the fuck was I thinking who comes from another floor just to say hi to someone else he’s gonna tell me to leave-_  
  
Keith’s expression softened, taking Shiro’s hand as he slumped guiltily. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so rude. I’m... Keith, and you’re standing in the accounting department.”  
  
Shiro smiled, relieved that he had somehow managed to get Keith’s name. He let go of his hand, and the two of them stared at each other in silence.  
  
“So… what brings you here Shiro?” Keith asked, head tilted and eyes blinking in a way that made Shiro’s heart squeeze in his chest.  
  
Shit. He hadn’t thought that far.  
  
“Uh…” He stalled for a second, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Well, I mean I just… I... “  
  
Keith could see Larry peering from over his cubicle suspiciously, and inwardly shriveled at the thought of being interrogated about Shiro chatting at his desk. He was going to have to cut the awkward conversation short. “Well it was really nice meeting you Shiro, but I have to get back to work-”  
  
“What’s your username?”  
  
Keith stopped short. “My what?”  
  
“Your username.” Shiro had grown unusually pale. Or was he usually this pale? Was it the trick of the light coming in from the windows?  
  
For a moment Keith looked at the figure standing on his desk, one of the rare trinkets he allowed himself at the workplace. It was a statue of one of his favorite raid bosses, a purple faced emperor.  
  
“Oh, you meant for that MMO, Legendary Defender?” He couldn’t help but light up, excited to have discovered a fellow player. “What class are you? Are you part of a guild already?”  
  
For a second, Shiro almost looked confused before he nodded quickly. “Yeah um, Legendary Defender. Definitely. I win all the time on that game.”  
  
“You mean you’re… at a high level?” Keith frowned, and Shiro knew he was losing him.  
  
“Y- yeah like, I always win at matches.”  
  
“Like… Raids?”  
  
Shiro closed his mouth with a click of his teeth, knowing he was only digging the hole deeper and decided to nod instead.  
  
“Great!” Keith smiled and it seemed like a beam from the very heavens had opened up in front of him. For a moment, Shiro thought he had been struck blind by the upward curve of his mouth.  
  
Keith reached for a sticky note and scribbled down a name, handing it back to him. Shiro took the note gently, reading out the username to himself.  
  
“That’s my name on the game, you can add me tonight and message me.” He glanced at what seemed to be his supervisor and rolled his eyes. “I really gotta keep working, but it was nice meeting you Shiro.”  
  
He tucked the note into his pocket. “Yeah, nice meeting you too, Keith.”  
  
It wasn’t exactly the right username that he wanted, Shiro sighed as he walked up the flight of stairs to marketing. But at least it was something. Maybe in time, he would be able to get his twitter handle as well.  
  
At first, Shiro only wanted to confirm Keith’s screenname to see if he really did follow his account, but something about the way Keith looked at him in their brief conversation sent his stomach flipping. He found himself wanting to know more about Keith, and maybe becoming his friend would quell the growing feeling in his chest.  
  
_Keep Keith from being jerk off material for my camshows._  
  
After dinner, he planned to himself, he’d download the game and create an account. Through Legendary Defender, he would have something to talk to Keith about.  
  
He’d figure Keith out.

How hard would that be?


	2. Level 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm here to make Shiro suffer

“Legendary Defender requires quick thinking and quicker reflexes. On higher level dungeons, a full team comp is required to successfully beat bosses. The gamer voice app ‘Dissonance’ is recommended to maintain voice contact with all party members.”

Shiro squinted at his laptop screen, pushing up his glasses with a disgruntled sniff. If he looked at the clock, he would have realized he had done a deep dive on Legendary Defender gaming tips for the past three hours and regretted his life choices instantly.

All this just to figure out if Keith watched his cam shows.

He quickly alt tabbed to the character creation screen, mouse hovering uncertainly over the “Black Paladin” class. It seemed that by and large, players recommended the class for its balance and flexibility, and it came with some interesting pros and cons. Shiro’s little 3-D avatar stared back at him. Weird that the game had the option of his haircut, shock of white hair and all, as well as an across-the-nose scar. No glasses available though, the game had strange priorities.

His phone beeped, another fan tweeting in response to his post to inform tonight’s show was unfortunately canceled. Something had come up, and his audience replied equal parts bemoaning the loss and hoping things were okay.

Everything’s fine. Shiro thought to himself as he typed in his username, the screen playing back the game’s first cinematic.

Just great.

It wasn’t Shiro’s first time completely playing an MMORPG, recalling college nights spent smashing hotkeys with his best friend Matt Holt. They had burned the midnight oil, fighting mobs of enemies as a mage and knight on a badly rendered landscape. Legendary Defender was of the new breed of games though, and he could hear his laptop fan whine pitifully as his computer fought combustion.

Reminder not to tell Matt that he was playing Legendary Defender and why, because all Shiro could picture was his old college roommate pissing his pants in laughter.

The game opened to his character standing in the middle of an alien spacecraft, a dim purple hue touching every surface. In a chirpy, accented female voice, the guide for the tutorial introduced herself as Allura, princess of a long dead race. With much insistence she called Shiro to escape the ship and fight her enemies, the Galra that were threatening to take over the game’s universe.

He spent an an embarrassing amount of time reading out loud the game’s tutorial to himself, learning how to swivel his camera view and the sacred controls of “WASD.” Then came the skill combos, the game patiently teaching Shiro successively complicated series of taps on the keyboard to do special abilities.

“This game’s... kinda violent.” He grimaced to himself as he failed miserably at doing another combo, his poor digital self once again was shot dead by Galra sentries. The voice actor sure was doing his money’s worth in death cries. Another time he had been caught by a Druid enemy and skewered to death. Before that, some cat-eared commander with one eye had crushed him to death against a wall with a single fist.

Taking a deep breath, Shiro rubbed his face wearily and sat back, mumbling the chain of arrows and letters to himself. When he finally got the skill down after his fiftieth attempt, his character managed to do a flying leap, robotic arm connecting with the floor to do an exaggerated shockwave, knocking down the enemies in a purple glow.

“Cool.” He watched with wide eyes as he completed the tutorial with another cinematic.

Allura’s voice gave him congratulations before dropping him into a home base, what she called the “Castle Ship.” A few other new options appeared on his menu to purchase in game items, join parties, and add friends.

Shiro audibly gulped, pulling the crumpled note out of the pocket of his pants before gingerly peeling the sticky note apart to read Keith’s scrawled out username. He’d come this far for this, and now it was time.

He clicked the little plus symbol to add a new friend.

 

* * *

 

 

“So what’s the dungeon that you really wanted to do Keith? We don’t have all day you know.” Lance jiggled his leg impatiently. He did not just log in to watch Keith farm materials for his new bayard form.

In response to the crackly, irritated quip from his headphones, Keith clicked just a little harder as his character barrel rolled away from a gangly galra boss, sinking his red bayard sword into its back (ensured critical hit). “Well, I didn’t have all day to wait for someone either, I was expecting you to show up two hours ago.”

“I was testing a new skin routine for my beauty channel, okay? It’s Korean, eleven steps, and now my face is as soft as a baby’s bottom.” Lance’s wink and signature smarmy grin was almost audible.

“Okay. And I would care, why?” Keith grumbled as he performed a throw with his sword, hitting three enemies in a line.

“Guys.” Pidge cut in, sure that if she had to hear Lance screech at Keith about the importance of skincare one more time, she’d have to chuck her computer out the window. “We all don’t have the time for a fight either. Keith, I know you just need two more rover drops to finish farming. Let me give them to you so we can actually get going.”

“But that’s no fun.” Keith frowned, even though he knew no one was actually there to see it. On the other end, he heard Pidge and Lance groan in unison.

“Keith, it’s a weeknight and we all have something to do tomorrow, swallow your pride and accept my trade invite.” She began to spam the trading button, hoping the constant stream of pop up notices would make him finally give in.

On the other end, Lance began to call his roommate’s name. “Hunk, where the hell are you? We’re going to the new dungeon soon.”

“Oh, sorry.” Came the muffled reply from Lance’s microphone. His voice gradually became louder before they heard his chair give out a squeak as he swiveled, now back at his desk with his own headphones on. “I’ve been experimenting to recreate food goo, and you guys, I really think I’ve almost nailed it. The consistency is still a little runny, but-”

“No one wants to eat that shit Hunk! It’s part of the in-game joke, just how gross it is.” Lance sighed, envisioning the clean up that would be required in their kitchen once again, and guess who’s turn it was.

“Hey, being a mechanical engineer is hard stuff, everyone needs a hobby. Mine just happens to be trying to recreate food goo and blogging about it.”

Pidge shrugged, pulling her legs up onto her chair. “He does get a good amount of hits.”

“Don’t encourage him.” Keith snarked as he clicked the trade accept button, Pidge pumping a fist in victory as he took her two rovers.

Beneath a fiery landscape of slow moving lava and steaming earth, Keith’s red paladin took a well deserved break from grinding. “Alright, so. I was thinking we could try taking on that Olkari dungeon today.”

“But we got our asses handed to us when we tried that last Saturday.” Lance protested instantly. “We all lost like, twenty percent of our exp on that shit.”

Keith ran a tired hand through his hair, bangs flopping back onto his face into a messy fringe. “I know, but we’ve all leveled a fair amount since then, right? So I think we might as well-”

He went silent, staring at the friend request pop up he had just received.

[Friend Request from: Kuro]

“Keith? Buddy? Did your mic crap out on you again? I’m telling you, you really need to put down the dollars on a new one.” Lance turned up the volume on his computer, just in case.

“No, no I’m good I’m just- Give me a second, okay?” Came his halting response.

_Whisper from Kuro: Hi, is this Keith?_

His heart hammered out of his chest as he replied. It couldn’t be, could it? It was impossible, there was no way.

_Whisper from RedKnight: Yes, this is Keith._

_Whisper from Kuro: Oh, good. It’s Shiro from Marketing._

Disappointed, but frankly a little bit relieved, Keith smiled. “Hey guys, my friend from work just signed on, would you mind me adding him?”

_Whisper from RedKnight: Do you have Dissonance or anything like that?_

Shiro fumbled with mouse for a second, hurriedly typing out his username. A few moments later, the little jingle was playing, notifying him of a voice call.

“H-hello?”

The voice on the other end was hesitant, but took on a smooth consistency of rich baritone. Keith visibly reddened, hearing Shiro rumble through his headphones. There was something vaguely familiar about that voice, almost comforting.

“Hello? Keith? Can you hear me?”

“Y-yeah! Yeah I can hear you.” He stammered. “Wow, the quality of your mic is... pretty good.”

The heat rushed to Shiro’s face at the unexpected comment. Keith didn’t seem to notice when it came to his choice of username, but had this managed to tip him off?

“Really?” He feigned ignorance instead.

“I can hear you loud and clear, so I would say… yeah.” Maybe it was because Keith was too close to his microphone, but his tone had taken onto a breathy quality, Shiro’s thoughts wandering.

Don’t think about the way you heard him swallow right before he replied.

Don’t think about-

Too late.

“Oh shit, I forgot to send you a link to the group my friends use.” Keith broke the daze by sending an invite. “They’re all my friends from college, we somehow managed to stay in touch.”

He murmured his thanks and joined the chat, a flood of sound coming in as he heard several different voices speak over each other at once.

“-I mean, I had no idea Keith even had friends at work.”

“Maybe it’s that guy? Larry?”

“Oh no, doesn’t Keith hate his guts? Why would he invite Larry?”

“Who knows… they both stay late, get into a heated argument, all of the sudden they start making out-”

“ _What?_ I didn’t hear about this!”

“No Hunk, Lance is just making up his shitty ideas again.”

“Hey! You never know.”

“Guys?” Keith shouted over the speculations. “I’m back. With my co-worker, Shiro. Not Larry. By the way Lance, Larry’s married and has three kids.”

Lance raised an eyebrow, putting an elbow onto his desk. “Keith, you know that something like that never gets in the way of true love-”

“Shiro, right?” Pidge rolled her eyes, having to interject for the second time today. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Pidge. Lance’s the screeching voice and Hunk’s the scared, confused one.”

Lance let out a tiny, shocked gasp before Hunk made a noise of tacit agreement.

Shiro took a deep breath. “It’s nice to meet you all. Thanks for inviting me.”

“Woah.” Lance whistled. “What do you do at work? Do their radio commercials for the ladies?”

“Close?” He chuckled. “I’m in the marketing department. Keith and I met… by chance and um, bonded over our… mutual interest in Legendary Defender.”

Keith grinned a little to himself, still in disbelief that he had managed to find another player at work of all places. “Hey Shiro, by the way, what’s your class? We have pretty much a full team minus the Black Paladin, but we can always accommodate an extra of whatever you feel like playing.”

“Oh I’m… I just started playing the Black Paladin class. I heard it was not bad.” Shiro began to sweat. Was that the wrong choice? Why didn’t they already have a Black Paladin if the forums said it was so good?

“That’s…” Keith paused, unable to come up with a reply. “That’s amazing Shiro. I had no idea you were that dedicated of a player.”

“...What?”

“Yeah I mean, most people that play it are hardcore into the game and have had multiple accounts. The Black Paladin was a class they released recently, and the storyline and skill tree are highly specialized.” Hunk further explained, “You don’t play the Black Paladin unless you know what you’re doing.”

Oh God.

The tiny voice in Shiro began to scream.

Oh God, _what have I done._

“Well, we gotta try it out now, a full team comp! Let me run some analysis on how we could min max our skills.” Rapid fire typing sounded from Pidge’s mic.

Keith sat back in his desk chair. “Hold on, guys. Shiro, you’re probably at a really low level right now, aren’t you? Since you just started this class.”

“You’re right about that…” Shiro answered sheepishly. “Don’t worry about me guys, I could go off and do some other things while you do what you all planned to do.”

He slumped a little, feeling foolish for expecting things to move more quickly. Of course Keith and his friends all had high leveled accounts, and there was no way he could impress Keith with his level 10 Black Paladin.

When did it become about impressing Keith anyways?

“No it’s okay.” Shiro heard Keith say. “Shiro… it sure isn’t glamorous, but you could stay in our party and hide from the enemy mobs. That way you can get experience to catch up to us.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with that?” He was surprised, he didn’t expect that Keith would go out of his way just to ensure that the group could stay together.

“We’ll be fine, we were planning on going with just us four in the first place.” Lance reassured. “Besides, I’ve got your back Shiro. They don’t call me the ‘Sharpshooter’ for nothing.”

Pidge snorted. “And who calls you that again?”

Keith ignored the fighting in favor of setting up the dungeon’s parameters, hoping that this time the four of them would be able to get past the normal version. “Dungeon’s ready to go. Sending you all invites now.”

 

* * *

 

 

The dungeon, as it was called, turned out to be nothing like a dungeon at all. The group landed on a planet inhabited by alien called the Olkari, Princess Allura wishing them good luck before they stepped out the castle ship. A sprawling, rich forest of endless trees and rolling hills populated Shiro’s screen while his laptop whirred in protest.

After Pidge took the time to ooh and ahh at the Olkari, excited to once again be playing a map that was inhabited by her favorite aliens, the team went further in on the mission to rescue the Olkari king. The landscape broke away to a flattened area filled with a black city, hundreds of enslaved Olkari milling about.

“We’re always good with the first part, which is mostly espionage.” Keith tried to bring Shiro up to speed. “It’s after we get to the Olkari king where things get hairy, we just don’t know how to beat the final boss.”

Dutifully, Shiro followed closely behind them, only really engaging to block if they were too many enemy forces coming from behind.

“God, Lance you’re in my way!” Pidge grunted as she shot her bayard, the rope winding around a pair of Galra before yanking it back, knocking them down and their health by a quarter.

Beside her, Lance fired an ill-placed shot down the corridor, the enemies rushing closer to him. Keith dove in between him and the guards, performing an upward slash of his sword and slicing the robot neatly in two. “What the hell were you even looking at?”

“My enemy!” Lance barked back. “But as usual Pidge pushed my character aside and I couldn’t line up my shot.”

“I don’t think I can hold cover fire much longer guys!” Hunk yelped as his avatar was quickly overwhelmed by another group of Galra.

“Damnit.” Keith grunted as he rushed forward, cutting down as many enemies as possible.

“You can’t run up like that!” Pidge called, watching Keith’s health bar drain away. “You’re going to die and we can’t keep up with you.”

“Then just keep up.” He replied with gritted teeth.

Shiro, hiding in a doorway, observed the slow trainwreck that was the teamwork of the four other players. Somehow, through what he thought could only be a miracle, they held it together long enough to finish the incoming mobs.

“We’re a fucking mess.” Lance groaned, putting his face in his hands. “How are we going to beat the boss if we keep fucking up like this.”

“Well, if you just followed the combos I suggested, things would have worked out perfectly.” Pidge griped.

A clap was heard over the voice chat, the sound of Lance slapping his hands on his desk. “How is this my problem when you don’t pay attention to anything around you Pidge?”

“Guys.” Keith’s voice came in, sterner than that Shiro had ever heard before. “You know what? It’s not just one person fucking it up. We all are. Even I am. I know that I push too far and leave people behind. We need to figure out a way to compensate for each other’s weaknesses, we just don’t know how.”

A tense silence fell over the five of them, dull, white noise cutting through the frigid stillness.

“Shiro.” Hunk spoke up. “You’re clearly a more experienced player than us. What do you think?”

“What- What I think?” Shiro nearly choked.

“That’s right. Shiro you know better than us. You’re a Black Paladin class, what should we do?” Keith almost sounded eager on the other end.

A cold sweat settled into his palms, making the mouse slippery under his touch. Sure, there were glaringly obvious things the team could improve on, but did he dare comment? He wasn’t a Black Paladin in anything more than the name, the weight of their approval suddenly heavy on his shoulders.

“I think…” He started. “I think each and every one of you have the right idea as to what you’re doing, but not the right sense organization.”

“What do you mean by that?” In a soft voice, Pidge asked.

Shiro began frantically pulling up the game’s Wikipedia. “Well, for instance… Lance, you’re correct when you’re trying to make each shot count, but you’re in the wrong place. You should be moving your character to higher ground if you want to take your time.”

“Alright…” Lance swiveled his camera, only noticing then that the walls had ladders he could scale to get to a beam overhead.

“And um… That way you can cover Keith so he can be free to do close range attacks without worrying about being overwhelmed. Keith, you need to tell people when you need help rather than taking it on yourself.”

“Okay.” Keith agreed, surprisingly quickly to the rest of his friends.

“As for you Pidge.” Shiro smiled. “You’re incredibly smart, so you have all these ideas planned out, but they won’t work as perfectly as you expect because you’re not playing with three other Pidges. Give people time to try out your suggestions, they’re not going to pick it up right away.”

“I guess…” She pouted, but made no move to disagree.

“I know I should be more forward.” Hunk admitted. “But I get a little freaked out when I see all the enemies come at me all at once.”

Shiro put a hand under his chin, thinking for a bit. “You need to cover others as much as they need to cover you so you don’t have to be worried. Take a deep breath and focus on a single target, the team needs to step up and take care of the rest.”

Hunk sighed in relief. “Okay. That actually sounds… not too bad.”

“Are you ready guys?” Shiro asked with a lop-sided grin. “Why don’t you try again?”

 

* * *

 

“Lance! Focus on the three in front of Hunk!” Shiro called out as his hid behind a pillar, the air filled with the sound of gunfire and blades connecting.

“You got it!” The Blue Paladin swung his scope over to Hunk, dispatching encroaching enemies neatly.

Shiro turned his camera to view Pidge and Keith. “Pidge, fall back for a second and take out the sentries that are hitting Keith in the back!”

Her bayard shot forward, drawing the robots close enough for her to perform a combo that bursted them into flames. With Keith free, he flung himself towards the boss, scaling the now mutated Olkari King to deal the finishing blow.

The boss disintegrated, leaving the group to pick up their chests and check out their loot.

“What? Coins and a health potion? What the heck is that?” Lance exclaimed in frustration.

“Well I don’t know about you guys, but I have to go to sleep. Getting up early for work tomorrow.” Hunk stared blearily at his screen, his eyes threatening to close.

Pidge, on her end, rubbed her glasses clean with her shirt. “Ugh. Don’t remind me. Guess I’ll be heading off too.”

One by one they said their goodbyes and signed out of the voice chat, leaving Keith and Shiro.

Shiro could swear Keith would be able to hear his heart thumping through the microphone.

“So, I guess everyone knows who you really are.”

Keith spoke, and Shiro felt his blood run cold. Did Keith know? Had Keith known all this time? Had he been spending the night secretly ridiculing him with his friends?

“The team’s shotcaller! We’ve never played that cohesively together, ever.” Keith stretched, listening to the bones of his spine click. It had been a hard dungeon, but a satisfying one thanks to Shiro’s leadership. “Um… Shiro? Are you there?”

“Y-yeah… yeah, I’m here.” Shiro exhaled. So that wasn’t what Keith was talking about. “I’m flattered, honestly, that you thought so highly of my suggestions.”

“Yeah, you lead us really well.” His voice had taken on sleepier, dreamy texture. Keith yawned, “It just felt really natural to follow your command.”

It just felt natural to follow his command.

It felt natural for Keith to follow his orders.

_Fuck._

“Really.” Shiro asked, and to Keith’s ears, he sounded less hesitant, more curious.

“Absolutely.” Keith encouraged. “Tell me what you want me to do Shiro, I’ll follow your lead.”

“I’ll do whatever you want.” In Shiro’s mind, he saw Keith, open mouthed, lips glistening in the low light. His hair in disarray and face flushed, laying against his bed sheets with legs spread. “Tell me what you want me to do, Shiro.”

“You’re begging for something you don’t understand.” He whispered in his ear as Keith squirmed under his touch.

“Shiro.”

“Shiro? Can you hear me? Shiro?”

He shook his head, willing the images to disappear with little success. Running a hand down his face, he fought the urge to groan miserably. “Keith, sorry, I’m still here.”

“Heh, I guess you’re pretty wiped too.” He laughed softly. “I just wanted to say goodnight. I’ll see you at work tomorrow?”

“See you at work.”

Dissonance blipped, signalling that Keith had also logged off. Shiro did the same before shutting his laptop.

He felt a certain mental exhaustion he had never before faced.

Too bad the erection in his sweatpants didn’t feel the same way.

It was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks once again for all of your patience! I don't really like speaking too much about how things have been going here, but my mental health hasn't been too fantastic. I promise though that I do intend to continue updating all my ongoing fics, and I'm so grateful that you all read them!


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